Furniture Manufacturing
A Greek leading brand in furniture manufacturing enters Industry 4.0 with Epoptia MES.
From Excel sheets to Industry 4.0
Back in the days, production management was mainly based on use of excel sheets that would be printed out daily. Then, the production manager would distribute them to the employees and twice a day he would walk around for 1-2 hours to inspect how the orders were proceeding.
With Epoptia MES, that procedure was cut down to just a few seconds.
The production manager can now make the most of his time by reaping the benefits of direct traceability and centralized information provided by Epoptia.
CASE STUDY
Upgrading the old way of production tracking and management
CHALLENGE
Production Management & Tracking.
Production orders are printed out daily by the production manager and they are then single-handedly distributed throughout all corresponding employees. What is more, in order to meet customer deadlines, he has to allot almost 2 hours of his time wandering and inspecting the progress of each order in place. That way of tracking production in person through printed excel forms was a rather time-consuming task and failed to make the most of the manager’s productivity.
Product Variants.
Each order regarding the products produced by the company is unique and bears various requirements and modifications as per customer request. Undoubtedly, designing high quality furniture with the least hassle is a rather challenging task. The workflows that accompany the products to be manufactured are complex. That is why the input of materials and classifications should be exactly as seen by the employees in the printed forms.
Unify different departments
Said company owns 3 retail stores in Attica and sales representatives that are being supplied by the factory. Dissemination of information is vital since many hours are now wasted coordinating delivery times and other day-to-day administrative duties. What is more, the even complex task of informing the factory on any possible alterations or modifications that have arisen has become a nuisance since it takes up precious time. All in all, trying to coordinate activities between 3 different departments and the factory has proven a rather challenging and unproductive undertaking.
Handling the designers
Prior to manufacturing, design is a crucial process existing in the company.
The design department is provided with the desirable requirements and specifications from the order forms, designs them and then proceeds with their manufacturing.
SOLUTION
Production traceability with Epoptia
Information on each order and product being manufactured is now provided by Epoptia. Employees themselves are the ones to update the software throughout the production process so that all other interested parties at any business rank are updated in real-time no matter where they are. A simple interaction with Epoptia platform can yield seamless production traceability since all procedures are being monitored in real-time at any given moment. Managers can now observe how each order is progressing and if they deem so, they can even alter its priority in a simple and effective manner by dragging and dropping it.
Integration with special fields & functions
Epoptia MES offers varied special fields and functions that, with the right structure, allow the products to have multiple differentiations. That includes, but is not limited to, the materials that are to be used for the assembly, the dimensions of the furniture, their colors, and many more. Each product is unique and thus, each Epoptia function can be tailored to fit each of their needs like a glove.
Total Communication between multiple levels
Sales representatives, managers and the administration personnel that claims customers’ inquiries have direct access to production data and delivery times simply by using their computer, tablet or mobile phone. Dissemination of information now takes place more effortlessly and promptly. Moreover, Epoptia’s privileges system allows everyone to see exactly what they need at all times in order to carry on with their tasks smoothly.
Integration with the procedures
At this point, the already existing procedure was followed. However, thanks to Epoptia’s smart workflows, first the orders are dispatched to the designers, who afterwards feed the production with the designs to be manufactured, significantly reducing the time needed for an order to reach production phase. In that way, the once time-consuming task of disseminating information about the orders back and forth, is now carried out promptly and with complete transparency. Every single task is monitored and that provides useful insight on how we could boost productivity and manage each order more efficiently, without altering the process that was already in place, just simplifying and enhancing it.
METRICS & RESULTS
Via the Epoptia core functions
Via decision making support
Across all floor shop
Start your digital transformation
Enter Industry 4.0 era.
